


Uncut Gems

by schneefink



Category: The Fire's Stone - Tanya Huff
Genre: M/M, Sharing a Body, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 22:04:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16049492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schneefink/pseuds/schneefink
Summary: Time magic went wrong, and Darvish meets two Aarons.





	Uncut Gems

**Author's Note:**

> For the h/c bingo square "body/mindswap." Thanks to eglantiere and araline.

"He's just a useless drunk."

That wasn't wrong, but it was rude to say so. Darvish, on the very edge between drunkenness and sleep, wasn't sure if the voice came from an unpleasant dream or an unpleasant reality. Thinking about it dragged him closer to being awake, and he blearily opened his eyes. 

The room was mostly dark, but the moonlight from the window showed a young man standing next to the bed and looking at him disdainfully. Darvish blinked. The man didn't look familiar, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. 

"Go 'way," he slurred. 

The young man's expression abruptly softened. "I forgot how bad it was," he murmured. "But he's more than that." He sounded almost – fond? 

What a strange dream. "Who're you," Darvish mumbled. He tried to lift his head, but quickly gave up and fell back again. He had a vague notion that an unknown person in his room should have been a cause for concern, but his eyelids were heavy and his body even more so. 

"Go back to sleep," the young man said, still in that weirdly soft tone. "We'll talk tomorrow, I promise. Send your dressers away at some point."

Why would I do that, Darvish wanted to ask, but all he could manage was a sleepy grumble. 

There was a hand stroking his hair, and then cupping his cheek. It felt nice, and Darvish nuzzled into it. "Sleep, Dar," the voice said, and Darvish obeyed.

 

Darvish didn't remember the strange dream until he returned from court in the evening – Lady Harithah was feeling unwell – and Oham greeted him with a bow. He frowned, finished the goblet of wine in his hand and handed it to the lord chancellor's man. It must have been a dream: it was extremely unlikely that someone would have been able to enter his rooms at night and leave again without being detected. Besides, an intruder wouldn't have touched him like that.

Still, for some reason the dream lingered, and he didn't have any plans for the night. "Leave my rooms until I call for you," he ordered his dressers, and made an impatient gesture when it looked like Oham wanted to ask a question. They all bowed and left, even the lord chancellor's man, who couldn't quite hide his curiosity. Usually Darvish didn't go to the effort of banning his dressers from his entire suite even when he had someone in his bed.

He should've asked them to bring more wine before they left. Darvish took a step toward the door, when he heard a knock on the wall behind him.

The young man from his dream stood in the arch to Darvish's bedroom. Darvish instinctively assumed a fighting stance, but the young man's only reaction was raising an eyebrow. 

"I could have cut your throat in the night if I'd wanted to," the intruder said, his tone conveying how little he thought of the palace's security. 

"I'm glad you didn't," Darvish said semi-automatically. "Who are you?" The pale skin, light red hair and grey eyes as well as the accent made it clear that he was an outlander from the North, but his clothes were local and of good quality. He was carrying a small pouch, but no weapons that Darvish could see.

The outlander hesitated for a moment. "Aaron," he said. His eyes flickered toward the door. "Aren't you going to call for the guards?"

"You're good enough to get in here at night and then hide for a day. I'm sure you have a plan for dealing with the guards." Something magical, probably. Without the assistance of a wizard he would never have made it through the wards. Maybe he was a wizard himself, though Darvish didn't think so, at least not a trained one. The intruder appeared relaxed, but to the trained eye it was obvious that he would be ready to fight at a moment's notice. Wizards usually avoided physical exercise whenever they could.

The intruder – Aaron – shrugged. "Hopefully I won't need to."

"That depends on why you're here."

Aaron grimaced. Darvish got the curious impression that he didn't actually want to be here, which could be a good or a bad thing. "I'm here with a warning."

"If you mean to warn me that palace security is inadequate, you succeeded." 

Aaron didn't even acknowledge his reply. He hesitated, appearing to struggle with himself. "I had… a vision. Of the future." Darvish's skeptical face must have spoken for itself, and he continued. "It was through a spell by a Wizard of the Nine. The Stone will be stolen."

"Nobody can steal The Stone," Darvish said automatically.

"They can, if they have the help of a Wizard of the Nine."

"Why would-" no, that was the wrong question. The Stone was powerful and priceless, and there were also plenty of people who wanted to do things just to prove they could. "Why would the wizard send a warning first?"

"What? No, a different Wizard of the Nine."

Multiple Wizards of the Nine, and an attack on The Stone. Nine Above. This required a drink. At this point Darvish was reasonably sure that Aaron didn't mean to attack him immediately, so he walked over to the chest where the servants kept the emergency bottles of wine for when Darvish was too thirsty and impatient to wait for them to get more from the cellars. He could feel Aaron's disapproving gaze on him as he poured wine into the goblet, but he ignored it. The intruder had no right to judge him.

Speaking of. "Why did they warn you?" Darvish suspected that Aaron was either an assassin or, more likely considering the story he told, a thief. Maybe the wizard had tried to hire him for the job. "And why come to me with this?" He gestured to himself with the hand holding the now full wine goblet. Some of the wine spilled over the brim. "If there really is a real threat, you should go to my most exalted father, the king. Talk to the royal wizards. Talk to Shahin, if you don't like my father. I'm just the court drunkard. I'm absolutely useless for-"

"That's not true!" 

The exclamation startled Darvish. Aaron's body language had suddenly changed: instead of cautious and distant, now he was leaning forward, intent. "You're more than that, Dar," Aaron said fiercely, staring at him. "You always have been."

Then he blinked. He briefly swayed in place as if unbalanced, and his face fell slack before settling into a scowl. His eyes were flat and closed off again.

"Demon," Darvish realized, and immediately afterwards knew it would have been smarter to keep quiet, pretend he didn't know what was going on. The vast majority of people wouldn't know what they'd seen, but Darvish was a prince. He'd been educated on a variety of threats he might face, even those who hadn't been seen in Ischia in decades.

Unfortunately, he also remembered that the only way to defeat a demon was with magic. The strength of the vessel depended on the strength of the demon, and considering that this demon had made it through the wards undetected Darvish didn't want to find out what other abilities he had. He opened his mouth to call the guards.

"Wait!" Aaron said quickly. His body language and face changed again, the demon taking over – or was it the other way around? Darvish switched his grip on the goblet. It was heavy enough to serve as a makeshift weapon. "Wait, Dar, please. I'm not a demon, I can prove it, just listen. Give me two minutes." 

"Why do you call me that?" Darvish couldn't help but ask, even though it was stupid. Demons were tricky, and he should call the guards immediately instead of listening to one. "Only my-"

"Your grandmother called you that, I know," Aaron, or whoever he was, interrupted. "She died years ago, and the only keepsake you still have of her is a flute she gifted to you when you were a boy, but you haven't played in years."

"How the One do you know that." 

"Cha- The Wizard of the Nine didn't send a vision, she sent _me_. It was an accident. I share my younger self's body now, and I need help getting back. Please, Dar," he begged. It sounded fantastical. As hard as he looked, Darvish saw no hint of a lie in his face – but maybe the demon was just that good. 

"I've never heard of a Wizard of the Nine doing something like that."

"It was an accident. She just wanted to take a look into the past, but it went wrong."

"Why come to me?" He suspected, but he needed to hear it. If he had told – or would tell – Aaron about his grandmother, they must be – have been – would be – close. 

"In the future, we're…" Aaron hesitated. Then his face changed again, became closed off and distant. 

"Is this the You of this time?" Darvish asked, and then realized that he was actually considering that Aaron's story might be true. Maybe a demon could play two personalities at the same time, and maybe it was powerful enough to not only read his immediate thoughts but also look at his memories, but then why would it approach him? Why not someone with actual influence or useful abilities? Whatever it might want, this seemed a needlessly convoluted and complicated way to get it. 

"Yes," Aaron said. He sounded different, too, his outlander accent slightly stronger. "He wanted to leave up to me what I tell you." 

"So?"

"We're… lovers," Aaron said. He stared at the floor, and his body radiated discomfort. "He said… He said we have a family. That's why he needs to go back." 

"Oh." Bugger the Nine. Darvish emptied the wine goblet, put it on a side table, and then didn't know what to do with his hands. He looked at Aaron again. He was undeniably attractive, and intriguing. In different circumstances Darvish would have tried to get him into bed, even though outlanders were notoriously prudish when it came to love between two men. But being told that they'd have a family together was a lot to take in at once. "So I don't marry that noble girl, then." Instead, he got together with a thief – his father would be delighted.

"No, you do," and that was future Aaron again. "She's part of the family, too. And she's… she's the wizard who sent me back." 

"A Wizard of the Nine?" His father had said nothing of the girl being a wizard when he'd told him of the engagement. Hadn't he said that she was only sixteen? Maybe she developed her talent late.

"Yes." Future Aaron smiled as if remembering something. "And she doesn't want to marry you any more than you want to marry her. At first. But it all works out." For a moment he wore the quiet happy smile of someone deeply in love. Then it vanished, and past Aaron was in control again. He twitched uncomfortably. 

If this was a demon, it was a very convincing one, and Darvish had no idea what its purpose in coming here was. He had no chance to win against it in a fight anyway, so he might as well go along with what it wanted for now. Nobody could fault him for that. He would ask more questions either way, and either it would give itself away or it would offer more proof of its – his, in that case – story.

"So Future You thinks I can get him help to get back?" As a prince, Darvish could contact high-ranking wizards, who wouldn't be too surprised by out-there sounding questions from him. They'd probably think he wanted to win a bet. But there were no Wizards of the Nine in Cisali, and he couldn't recall hearing of any nearby. Apart from those Aaron had mentioned, of which one was too young for a working of this magnitude and the other- 

"And keep The Stone from being stolen," past Aaron – or more accurately, this time's Aaron – added. 

Darvish felt cold. "Did Ischia…"

"No," Aaron said quickly. "No, he said they got it back just in time. Well… we did. Our future versions. And Chandra. Your wife," he added when he saw Darvish not react. "We stole it back from a Wizard of the Nine from Ytaili." 

Darvish sat down heavily on the nearest sofa. Then he looked up. "When? Is there still time?"

"Yes. A bit more than two ninedays."

"Thank the One," Darvish exhaled. "If you – he – if he hadn't gone back so far…"

"He arrived a few days ago," Aaron said. He hesitated and then sat down in the armchair opposite of the sofa, his back straight. "It took him a few days to convince me that I hadn't gone crazy."

Darvish snorted a laugh. "That, I completely understand. Usually I only hear voices when I'm very, very drunk."

"I wasn't drunk," Aaron said defensively. "I was grieving."

"I'm sorry."

Aaron nodded.

They sat in silence for a short while. Darvish knew he should ask for more details about what was to come, but it seemed like as soon as he did it would become real, and then he would immediately be responsible for acting on whatever he learned. He needed more time to process. And more wine. He poured himself another goblet. 

"So what's it like, sharing your body with a future version of yourself?" he asked. 

"Strange." 

"I bet. Do you fight about who controls it?" Not all of the switches earlier had seemed planned. He guessed that they probably hadn't intended to reveal the existence of Future Aaron so soon.

"It's my body," Aaron said sharply. 

It seemed to be a sore topic, and Darvish raised his hands. "I'm just asking. It must have been difficult, suddenly getting used to a second mind and voice in your head, telling you about the future." Especially because, since it had been an accident, Future Aaron had likely been almost as confused at first. Darvish wondered how long it had taken him to figure out what had happened. "Did he decide to change things immediately?"

"That was an accident. He wanted me to do what he'd done, but by then it was too late." Aaron sounded grimly satisfied about that, and Darvish frowned.

"What did he want you to do?" 

"Go to the palace."

Darvish raised an eyebrow and pointedly looked at Aaron and then the room.

"He wanted me to go earlier," Aaron clarified, "but his arrival threw off the timing."

"Why earlier?"

"When he went to the palace for the first time, he met you." Darvish still didn't understand. Aaron's eyes narrowed. "He was caught." 

Anyone who entered the palace unauthorized was given to the Fourth and into the hands of the twins. An image of Aaron chained and screaming on the twins' torture bench flashed through Darvish's head and he winced. Had he, or that other version of himself, been responsible for that? He wouldn't wish that fate on anybody, and especially not someone who had risked that danger to help Darvish. Someone who, in one future, Darvish had grown to love. 

That future had already been changed. Things might turn out very differently this time. There was no sense in becoming attached to this stranger too quickly just because of what might have been, Darvish reminded himself, but he already suspected that this resolution would be difficult to keep.

Future Aaron must be very attached to his life if he was willing to subject his past self to torture. Maybe he'd thought it was his only way of getting back.

"Can he even go back, now that the future will be different?" Darvish thought out loud.

Aaron hesitated before replying, which was an answer in and of itself. "He believes so," he finally said. His tone and look warned Darvish against probing further, and Darvish acquiesced. There was nothing to be gained from putting Future Aaron's hopes into question. Time magic was an extremely rare kind of magic, almost a myth, and who could say how it worked? Maybe there was a way for Future Aaron to return to exactly the place and time he came from. There was no use speculating before they'd found a wizard who could help. Until then, they should concentrate on the more immediate threats.

He should ask Future Aaron to tell him all relevant information about the theft and then send him away for a bit. That way he could verify his claims and then make a plan based on what he finds without being distracted by the thief. He should give Aaron some money and then tell him to stay somewhere Darvish can contact him if necessary, or once he found people familiar with time magic.

He should also contact a wizard and ask about demons, just to be absolutely sure.

Instead he asked: "So what's your plan?" and then watched as Aaron's posture became less rigid, his face less controlled.

"I can tell you now who in Ischia will help steal The Stone, but you should wait until shortly before it happens to arrest him or they'll look for someone else. The lord chancellor is a traitor, we'll look for proof of that. It'll be easier if you can give us a permission to be in the palace," Future Aaron said. 

"I never liked him," Darvish said. The lord chancellor, a traitor? It sounded absurd at first but the more he thought about it the more believable it seemed. He carefully didn't ask how Aaron and Future Aaron would search for evidence.

"Ytaili will try again, but if necessary we can kill their Wizard of the Nine."

"Sure." Just go to Ytaili and kill a Wizard of the Nine, no big deal. 

Future Aaron grinned at Darvish's bland tone, but then became serious again and leaned forward. "And, Dar. You need to stop drinking." 

Darvish shrugged and put down the half-full wine goblet he'd grabbed at some point during their conversation. Future Aaron kept looking at him. Then Darvish understood what he meant, and he only just stopped himself from reaching for the goblet again. "Why does it matter?" 

"Last time – in my future – you stopped drinking during our quest. But I changed things, and now that quest won't happen. I don't want your life to be worse because of what I changed."

"What business is it of yours," Darvish asked rudely. He looked away from the expression on Future Aaron's face. 

"Dar," Future Aaron said gently.

Darvish took the goblet and threw it across the room. He sprang to his feet, but the steady gaze from silver eyes held him in place. Wine ran down the wall. 

He needed the wine. There was no other place for him than the role of drunkard, he knew it and he'd accepted it, and when he was drunk he didn't even mind. He could remember the frustration from before the wine, the anger about the aimlessness, the realization that the only way he could bear the daily grind was to escape from it. How could it be better if he stopped drinking and had to face the reality of what his life was like?

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the thief's body language shift, and he knew that it was the Aaron of this time again. He braced himself before turning, preparing to see Aaron look at him with derision, or worse, pity. 

Instead, he thought he saw sympathy. Darvish closed his eyes. "He knew this would happen."

"Yes," Aaron confirmed. He seemed uncomfortable. Good.

"He's seen me stop drinking before." He'd never seen it for himself, but he'd heard that it was difficult, painful, and for some, even fatal. 

"Yes."

"I guess that means that at least I know I'd survive it," Darvish muttered. He sat down again and hid his face in his hands, for just a moment. 

"He says you have the strength," Aaron relayed. His voice didn't give away what he himself thought, and Darvish snorted. A fine first impression he'd made on his lover-in-another-future. 

Still, it was nice to know that Future Aaron believed in him. Even without the wine, Future Darvish must have gotten his life together enough to have a family, including a lover who wanted to travel through time to get back to him and believed in him even as a drunken fool. According to Future Aaron's story, Future Darvish had been a hero who'd saved Ischia from destruction. Maybe that's what it took to finally be given something to do.

"Fine," Darvish said brusquely. "The One help me, I'll try. But right now, protecting The Stone and the kingdom is more important. The rest can wait until later."

"I don't think he agrees," Aaron said, gaze turned inward and an eyebrow raised. He paused and then said, "but he's willing to let it go for now."

"Thank you," Darvish said sarcastically. He leaned back on the sofa. "I'll see about getting you permission to enter the palace." It would be easy to make up a story of how he'd met Aaron during one of his nights out partying in town. For a moment he thought of introducing Aaron as his lover – that was certainly what everyone would suspect – but his most exalted father wouldn't be happy about Darvish giving a lover access to the palace. Maybe he could say he'd hired him for something. Then everyone would still think he'd just come up with an excuse to grant his lover easier access, but the polite thing would be to ignore it. Shahin would probably enjoy the opportunity to insult his common sense and good taste. Although with Aaron being so striking, at least Darvish didn't expect many people to do the latter.

"Thanks."

"How can I contact you?"

"I'll find you," Aaron said with a smirk and stood up. "It's been a pleasure, Highness." 

Darvish laughed at the mockery in his voice. "You're welcome." He watched Aaron climb effortlessly through the window and disappear. 

It was quiet again. If he didn't know that his imagination wasn't that creative, he would be tempted to write the whole scene off as a dream. Wizards of the Nine and a theft of The Stone, and his lover from the future in the body of a beautiful outlander thief who wanted Darvish to help him save the city. Whatever chaos would follow, at least it wouldn't be boring.


End file.
